Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Primitive Skills => Topic started by: bigcountry on October 26, 2010, 07:42:06 pm
-
I have never let the hair slip with hardwood ashes. I used borax in water.
I was reading an article in PA about using Hardwood ashes, and you know you ahve enough ash when an egg will start to float.
Can anyone verfy that this is the way?
-
I've read that too. The PH is what's important- anything to raise it will slip the hair.
-
Big country, are you talking about leaching the Lye out of the ash, to make a solution? A similar process is used in the making of Lye Soap, and the floating egg lets you know that the Lye content is right.
-
All you have to do is soak the hide in plain water for 3 days. Make sure you stir it occasionally and leave it no longer than that. If you do, you will have a bucket of hairy jello.
-
All you have to do is soak the hide in plain water for 3 days. Make sure you stir it occasionally and leave it no longer than that. If you do, you will have a bucket of hairy jello.
Tried that one time. Nasty and stinky. So I went with the borax approach.
-
I just dry scape it,little more work but ,I think better quality rawhide or leather if you tan it,you are coming close to rotting the hide to get the hair to slip,that has to effect the quality. JMO. :)
Pappy
-
How much borax in how much water ? ' Frank
-
I just dry scape it,little more work but ,I think better quality rawhide or leather if you tan it,you are coming close to rotting the hide to get the hair to slip,that has to effect the quality. JMO. :)
Pappy
Bingo. It doesn't take but about half an hour to dry scrape a hide, and it's not nearly as nasty and doesn't give you a wierd Goobledegockus blood infection if you have a cut on your finger.
-
Is the egg supposed to be raw or cooked?
-
I agree Hillbilly
But i do have one question....What is the definition of gobbledegockus? ;D
god bless
Ron
-
I just dry scape it,little more work but ,I think better quality rawhide or leather if you tan it,you are coming close to rotting the hide to get the hair to slip,that has to effect the quality. JMO. :)
Pappy
Bingo. It doesn't take but about half an hour to dry scrape a hide, and it's not nearly as nasty and doesn't give you a wierd Goobledegockus blood infection if you have a cut on your finger.
Then what, just stretch it and let it dry?
-
Jonathan, you stretch it and let it dry before you scrape the hair off. Then it's pretty much done. Okie, it's one of those horrible little bacteria that look like little villians if you look at them under an electron microscope. They even have little tiny waxed mustaches.
-
Jonathan, you stretch it and let it dry before you scrape the hair off. Then it's pretty much done. Okie, it's one of those horrible little bacteria that look like little villians if you look at them under an electron microscope. They even have little tiny waxed mustaches.
HAHAHAHAHAHA...
THAT IS EXACTLY THE ANSWER i WAS LOOKIN FOR. Looked it up in the dictionary...you nailed it... ;D ;D ;)
God bless
Ron
-
Like this Jonathan, then whe it is scraped,just cut it loose,trim the edges off and roll it up,you are done till you need it. :)
Pappy
-
Looks easy enough. Thanks Steve and Pappy. I'm holding out on finishing a hickory board bow because I'd like to back it with deer rawhide instead of a dog bone. Unfortunately, the deer seem to have other plans.
-
Jonathan, when you get your rawhide cut the backing strips from head to tail and not across the hide. Hides have a lot of stretch across but not much lengthwise. You will havbe to use two pieces so just overlap them at the handle.
-
If you're just making rawhide, nothing is easier than hydrated lime. It does take a little time, but a quart jar of lime to about 15 gallons water will slip the hair and leave the entire grain layer. You can soak a hide in lime for as long as you need, a month, even, if you stir it sometimes and keep it out of the sun. When you can just push the hair off with your hand, it's ready. Of course, any of the alkali soaks have to be neutralized. There are lots of ways to do this. The quickest I've found it ammonium sulphate, it's pretty cheap, you can use it to fertilize your garden if you like, and it works overnight, one handful to about four gallons water does two deer hides. The only downside to the lime is that the white residue is hard to get back out. If you choose to braintan the hide, you don't want the residue, it will mess up the softening. You can leave them in a stream for a couple days, like some of the old tannerys did. Stretch tight on the frame and you have good strong rawhide, or you can scrape off the grain and go to brain tanning.